2 Texas teens proud to be on Team Perry

AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry’s decision to soldier on through South Carolina has been mocked, criticized and questioned, but he’s carrying the hopes of Texans like Reagan and Miranda Ashley with him.

The Harlingen teenagers volunteered for Perry in Iowa, covering their expenses by making pro-Perry posters, seeking sponsors and asking local businesses to display them.

“A lot of businesses would hang them up. Some would tell us just to keep the poster, but a lot of them would donate money even if they weren’t Perry supporters, just because we were getting involved,” said Reagan, 17.

In Iowa, the teens made phone calls and went door to door. As caucus day rolled around, 15-year-old Miranda said she was “praying and having my fingers crossed.”

Then they and their mom, who made the trip with them, got to experience the confusion about Perry’s future that defined caucus night for Texans.

“It was pretty weird, because a lot of the staff were like, ‘He’s dropping out,’ and a lot were like, ‘No, he’s not,’ ” Reagan said. “No one was real sure what was going on.”

The cynical might think that’s a lot to hang on Perry, but you’ve got to admire the enthusiasm.

Now that Perry’s hopes are pinned on South Carolina, the home-schooled teens might volunteer for him in the Palmetto State as well.

“We’re thinking about South Carolina,” Reagan said. “We’re not sure quite yet, but we want to go.”

Cuss the caucus

Teenagers weren’t the only ones who got a fresh look at presidential politics in Iowa. Austin consultant Thomas Graham, also part of Perry’s volunteer strike force there, wrote a blog post about having “caucussed” (intention misspelling) for Perry.

Graham described a voting process he found underwhelming: “Small torn-up slips of paper are passed around, collected and counted, resembling something more like a classroom student council vote than the first step in the process of selecting the leader of the free world. Frankly, it’s stunning to see how this process, where 120,000 of the state’s 3 million population argue and jostle over their ‘preference for president,’ is given so much significance and weight. Democracy in action, I suppose.”

Perry staff shake-up?

As Perry tries again to restart his campaign, critics like influential RedState blogger Erick Erickson are advocating another staff shake-up to prove he’s serious: “Perry has to demonstrate he recognizes just how terrible his campaign is. And that means people at the top level need to go.” Among those in his got-to-go category was senior adviser Joe Allbaugh, though Erickson says he admires him.

Perry initially gave an odd response when asked by reporters post-caucus whether he was changing his team: “I don’t know what you mean by changing my team. I’m not changing. I’m still the same guy I always was. I’m going to keep my wife.”

When asked about staff changes, Perry’s response didn’t make it sound like Allbaugh’s future is on the line unless Allbaugh wants it to be: “I don’t have any idea. That’s not my area of expertise. I’ll leave that to Joe Allbaugh.”